


Runaway

by MetamorphicRocky



Series: Dadspeed [7]
Category: Final Space (Cartoon)
Genre: Baby Cato AU, Dadspeed, Father-Son Relationship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Season 2 spoilers, if you have no idea what this is, it was a random idea in the shower that has gotten out of hand, it's just the same thing but now Lil Cato is 8
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-13
Updated: 2019-09-13
Packaged: 2020-10-17 18:37:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20625683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MetamorphicRocky/pseuds/MetamorphicRocky
Summary: Gary doesn't know how to be a parent, but what he does know is that he doesn't want Little Cato to get hurt because of him. He tries to distance himself from the kid, but that backfires when Little Cato runs away.





	Runaway

**Author's Note:**

> I am a monster
> 
> so if you have not seen this on tumblr, I just randomly thought in the shower the other day about how the series would be different if Little Cato was younger. and thus this was born
> 
> this takes place instead of The Other Side, because I do not want to do that to an eight year old

"Is that the key?"

Gary turns around to see Little Cato standing in the doorway, staring at the key from Serepentis in awe. He nods, so the boy immediately comes over to look at it more closely. He oohs excitedly, the pink light of the key shining in his eyes.

"Can I come next time?" Little Cato asks, looking up at Gary with pleading eyes.

"Maybe, Spidercat. We'll have to see," Gary says.

The kid's ears droop, and the excited swishing of his tail stops. Oh crap, that's not good. He needs to fix this.

"You know, I've got all this bottled up energy over getting one of these," Gary says, walking across the room and juggling the key in his hands. "And I don't know how to release it!"

"Chookity!" Mooncake chirps.

Gary turns towards his little buddy with a disgusted look on his face. "That is a different kind of energy! And not appropriate to say in front of children, we're gonna talk about this later."

He spins aimlessly into the center of the room, then gasps as an idea hits him. "I need music, ear fuel. I'm talking real hardcore stuff. I need...a hit of Loggins!"

Little Cato tilts his head to the side in confusion, scrunching his face up as he tries to think. "What's a Loggins?"

"Oh, Little Cato, you are missing out. When you hear it, you can't help but just explode!" Gary smiles as the kid gasps over his exclamation.

"Chookity!"

Gary's head whips towards Mooncake in horror, quickly covering Little Cato's ears. "Mooncake! Sensitive ears in the room, geez! And no, I mean dancing!"

Little Cato starts bouncing excitedly at that. "Maybe the ship has it!

"Nah, it's way too old," Gary complains.

All of a sudden, AVA interrupts, "Searching.... Are you referring to the Loggins, Kennith? Because I have his entire catalog."

Gary and Little Cato look to each other, and Gary smirks. And before he knows it, he's running and leaping and dancing to Footloose all across the ship. Mooncake is bouncing along, Little Cato tapping to the beat happily, and somewhere down the line Tribore jumps in. Now Gary is dancing with Nightfall, having the time of his life, laughing as his feet move effortlessly with the music.

A blaring siren shuts him down, and he barely has time to comprehend that AVA is saying something about collision imminent before he hears Little Cato shout, "I got this!"

Gary panics and sprints after the boy, reaching the bridge just in time to snatch him out of the pilot's seat before he can even touch the controls. He slides into the spot as he not so gently puts the boy down, quickly grabbing the handles to steer them out of danger, maneuvering the ship to avoid a collision.

When it appears that they're out of it, he takes a deep breath. "AVA, we good?"

"We have successfully cleared the mass of time shards. Good job," the AI says.

Gary slumps in his seat with relief, but he still has a death grip on the controls just in case there are any surprises. Then he notices that Little Cato is still standing in the same spot he tossed him in.

"I could have done it," the kid says, his ears drooping again.

Gary smiles tightly. "I know, Spidercat. I just have a little bit more experience than you, and that was pretty dangerous back there." He ruffles the kid's hair to lighten the mood and make it sound believable.

Little Cato's mood seems to bounce back up. "Can we dance again? More Loggins?"

Gary glances between the kid and the seemingly endless space before him. He shakes his head as he loosens his grip on the controls. Damn, he was really holding on tight.

"Maybe later. I'm gonna stay in here and try to find more dimensional keys."

Little Cato isn't deterred in the slightest. "Oh, I can help!"

"Um," Gary says, "Not right now. Maybe Ash wants to hangout?"

The kid shrinks into himself, his tail curling dejectedly. "Oh, okay," the kid says quietly, and then he walks out. 

Gary sighs, carding a hand through his hair because of stress. He feels bad for making the kid find something else to do, but it's best this way. The less time he spends with Gary, the less likely he is to mess up horribly and get the kid hurt or killed. This is a good plan. Little Cato has plenty to keep himself entertained with, and he'll maybe play a game of cards with the kid later. Yeah, this is working. He just needs to stay away from the kid, make sure he's alive, and then it's good.

This won't backfire.

* * *

"Gary!"

The man jolts awake to Nightfall shaking him. Oh, when did he fall asleep? And damn he can feel the crick in his neck from sleeping in this chair.

"Yeah? What's up?"

She looks frantic and worried, so Gary instantly is alert. "Little Cato ran away."

His face blanches, all of the breath leaving his body in a flash. His mouth is dry, none of this is real, and this is not happening right now. He had to have misheard.

"What?" he gasps.

Nightfall sets her mouth into a flat line. "He ran away."

"How did this happen?" Gary jumps up, feeling panic set in. "Did no one try to stop him?!"

HUE waddles over. "I tried to stop him. I reached out my hand and said, 'No, don't go!' But he just walked right past me. What good is a body if no one respects it?"

"Wow, you did all that?" Gary deadpans. "Okay, we're wasting time. We've gotta find him before something happens."

Nightfall nods, handing Gary's phone to him. "He searched for planets best for runaways on here and forgot to delete the search history. I'm assuming he went to this one."

She points at the recent searches, and he notices one name repeated several times. Okay, so that was easy. Now to just get there.

"Okay, we don't have time to lose, let's—"

"We are now arriving at Tralavi, keep up, Gary," AVA says.

"Oh." Gary claps his hands. "Look at you guys go. Okay, now we're gonna split up to look for him, and we are not leaving until we have him."

The moment the ship lands, Gary bolts out into the bustling streets around him and oh god. This planet is...so sketchy. He thinks that he sees a corpse in a ditch to his right, and he grimaces. Of all the planets, the kid had to pick the worst.

Nightfall stands next to him, an uncomfortable expression on her face. "This is not the most kid-friendly place I've been to."

"Even more reason why we have to hurry, come on!" Gary shouts, jumping into the busy fray, Nightfall, Mooncake, and KVN trailing after him.

He notices a non-terrifying man leaning against a wall and walks up to him, phone in hand with a picture of Little Cato displayed. "Excuse me, but have you seen my boy? Well, he's a boy I know. That I'm in charge of. He's my friend's, but now he's...mine." The man gives Gary a look, so Gary clears his throat awkwardly. "Seen him?"

"No, now get lost."

Gary shuffles away quickly, not in the mood to get beat up by someone today. He catches Nightfall's eye across the street, and she shakes her head. Nothing yet, but they just started. They'll find him.

They have to.

* * *

It's been almost three hours of searching. And nothing. Not a single person who's seen him. Most people won't even talk to him because he's human, and the ones that do just judge him for not being able to handle a Ventrexian kid.

"Where the hell could the kid have gone?!" He groans, scrubbing at his face in frustration.

Nightfall sighs next to him, staring at the massive crowd in the square. "He's eight, I don't know how he got so far."

"I found him!" KVN exclaims, flying over to Gary.

"What? You did? Where?"

KVN pulls out an orange from who knows where. "Right here!"

Gary is so fed up with all of this that he takes the orange and launches it as far as it will go. 

The man collapses onto the edge of a fountain and stares down absentmindedly at the cobblestone ground with a heavy sigh. The longer he's been on this planet, the more things he finds that are not for kids to discover alone, let alone ever.

"Gary, how do you think you're going to get Little Cato to come back with us?" Nightfall asks.

He shrugs. "Well, he'll see all I did to find him, and come right back."

She rolls her eyes and sighs. "It's not going to be that easy."

"Why?"

"Well, for one, you haven't been really taking care of him," she says with a bite in her voice.

Gary's lost now, and his mouth curls up in confusion. "What?"

Nightfall raises an eyebrow. "Well, let's list it out. You've let the kid do some pretty dangerous things without thinking first, you leave him to his own devices a lot, and when he tries to be around you, you tend to push him away for some reason," she says bitterly, counting off on her fingers as she goes. "Anything else I need to add?"

Gary's mouth hangs open in surprise, and he struggles to find the right words, or any words.

"Little Cato probably thinks that you don't want him around."

His chest tightens at that. "Of course I want him around, that's why I'm looking for him."

"Does he know that though? You always tell him to go do something else rather than be around you. You haven't sent the best signals."

Gary buries his face in his hands, rubbing tiredly at his eyes. Does it really look like that? That he doesn't want the kid around? He just doesn't want him to get hurt when Gary messes up. He's never done this before, so he has no idea what he's doing! But, did he end up hurting the kid by trying not to hurt him?

Shit, this is so complicated. 

He sighs deeply, running a hand through his hair in a stressful manner. "I'm doing the most I can," Gary moans.

Nightfall throws her hands up at that. "Really? Well, then we might as well give up."

Gary glares at her. "You know we can't do that."

"So how are you gonna fix this? Little Cato's dad is dead. You know better than anyone what you want after something like that happens," she says knowingly.

His eyes flit to the crowd again, hoping he sees a flash of orange. "A normal life," he whispers.

A nod. "If you want to make this up to him, you'll have to step up. So, what are you going to do, Gary?"

Gary clearly remembers the crushing loneliness he felt when he had no one after his dad died. He just wanted someone to be there, it didn't matter who. Obviously, he would have done anything to get his dad back, but it wasn't possible. And now, Little Cato is feeling the same. Gary can't knowingly put a kid his age through that pain.

He stands from the fountain with a renewed sense of purpose. His face hardens while he starts bustling about the square, grabbing the tallest crate he can find with an apology and a promise to give it back to the owner. He drags it into the middle of the square and hops on up. Gary scans the crowd, not being able to see what he's looking for. Well, he had another reason to come up here.

So, he clears his throat and shouts, "Hey!"

The square stops, heads turn towards the interruption on their day. Gary breathes deeply and whips out the picture of Little Cato.

"Has anyone seen this boy? He's a Ventrexian, eight years old, about this tall, very orange, and he has a small, bright blue mohawk."

The crowd just stares at him, some in open annoyance and others in slight curiosity.

"Why are you looking for him?"

"He's my boy," Gary starts, feeling the emotions he's been pushing off all day come to the surface. "He ran away, and I'm worried sick about him. I messed up, but I need to find him and make it right. Please, I'll do anything to get him back," he pleads.

Gary feels moisture building up in his eyes, probably from all the stress, as he stares out at the deathly silent swarm of people. All of a sudden, he hears crying from within the crowd, and then notices that most of the people are getting emotional over what he said. Okay, wow, that is new. 

"Oh, what a dedicated guardian! I saw a boy like that not too long ago, wearing a yellow sweater?" 

Gary's head whips toward the woman who spoke, nodding his head rapidly. "Yes! Where was he?

She points towards the shadiest streetway he's seen yet. "I'm not sure exactly where he was heading, but my best bet is the shop district. They always take whatever they can get their hands on."

"Okay, thank you all so much! Someone give this crate back to the fruit man!"

A chorus of best wishes follows his words as he leaps from his soapbox, immediately collecting his friends to venture into a place that looks like it could scar a child. They need to be quick.

Gary's need to find the kid makes him run faster and harder than he ever has before. Oh god, he's so worried. He hopes the kid isn't being taken advantage of somewhere. And if the kid is hurt or worse, he doesn't know what he'll do with himself.

"Little Cato!" he screams frantically into the crowd. "Spidercat, I'm here!"

He can hear Nightfall and KVN shouting his name as well, but the further they run, the more he fears something terrible has happened. No, don't start on that train or else Little Cato will never be found. 

"Gary, let's split up to cover more ground. We meet back here in an hour if we don't find anything," Nightfall says. Gary nods, and the four of them break off to find the missing boy.

Gary turns down an alleyway, passing by an assortment of different shops. Is that one dedicated to selling skulls? 

"Little Cato! It's Gary! Please, come here!"

No response. He continues walking past a store with a table outside, a small person in a hood tending to it. Gary is about to keep going when he catches a flash of orange under the hood, and he stops dead in his tracks. 

"Little Cato."

The person turns towards him, and Gary has never felt more relieved than when he sees a fluffy orange face with wide, innocent eyes. He smiles almost unbelievably, a content laugh bursting forth from his chest. 

"Little Cato, you have no idea how—!"

The kid takes off running, his hood flapping away. Oh no he doesn't. Gary bounds after him, pushing through the crowds in his way. The dreary surroundings and people make the Ventrexian's orange coat stand out, but the kid is quicker than Gary expected. But he's small, so of course he would be able to snake in between people.

Gary's losing him. He can barely catch a glimpse of his tail through all these people. Then he notices the street curving up ahead, plus a nearly empty alleyway. Perfect, he can cut him off.

The man takes a sharp turn, not slowing his pace, pushing himself beyond his limits because he will not let this kid suffer through what he did. Little Cato is going to have a normal life, and Gary will never let anything get in the way of it.

He leaps out of the alley back into the street, with a perfect amount of time to see Little Cato running towards him and not having enough time to stop and run the other direction. The boy notices him too late, which allows Gary to snatch him up as he runs past. 

"No!" Little Cato screams, drawing the attention of everyone around them. He starts pounding his fists against Gary's chest where he's being held, his legs trying to kick at Gary.

"Little Cato, hey! Stop!" Gary exclaims, trying to have a strong grip on the squirming kid.

"No! Let me go! Let me go!"

"Stop hitting me, come on!"

"You stop!"

Gary suddenly gets hit in the face, rather hard he has to admit, and it's so surprising that he loosens his hold on Little Cato, giving him an opportunity to slip to the ground. The kid tries to run away again, but Gary holds onto one of his arms and crouches down to reach him better.

"No! Let me go!" Little Cato screams, pulling on his arm while hitting Gary to get away.

"Come on, Spidercat. Don't hit me," Gary says patiently.

The kid just continues to struggle, wanting to break free so badly. "Go away! You don't need to be here!"

He sounds so upset, and it absolutely crushes Gary. He takes his other arm and grabs the boy around the waist to drag him closer.

"Let go! Just go away!" Little Cato's voice cracks at the end, then he melts with one last hard tug of his arm. His shoulders begin to quake, so the tears come full force. He looks up at Gary, a completely heartbroken expression showing the poor kid's pain. "It's better this way," he hiccups.

"Why is it better?" Gary asks, moving both of his hands to hold the boy's small shoulders.

"Now you're not stuck with me."

He's been stabbed, right through the heart. Oh, Nightfall was so right; she always is. He really fucked up.

"What do you mean?" Gary says, trying his best to sound open and inviting.

Little Cato shoves a fist under his eye in an attempt to scrub away his tears. "I know you didn't want me. It's my fault that you're stuck with me, so if I go, you can be happy and save Quinn."

Gary stares at the boy who's now full on sobbing in complete silence, not knowing what to say. He can feel his own tears building up, and he doesn't even want to think about the people standing in a circle watching this happen.

"Hey, look at Gary. Please, little buddy," he pleads. Little Cato tentatively glances up with his big eyes, and Gary is just hit with the sudden feeling of needing to never let those eyes lose the spark in them, even if it means tearing apart the universe. "I'm gonna say some stuff, and you gotta listen to all of it, okay? It's really important.

"I messed up bad. You haven't done anything wrong, this is all on me. I shouldn't have pushed you away, but I was scared that I was gonna hurt you if you were near me. But now I know that isn't good, and I hurt you, Spidercat. I never meant to, but you think I hate you because of what I did. And I—," Gary chokes on his words, the tears threatening to spill, "I would never want you to go away, nor would I ever hate you, okay? You are the best thing to ever happen to me, but I didn't see that until I almost lost you. So I'm gonna make it up to you, how does that sound?"

Little Cato simply stares at him, tears slowly streaming down his cheeks as his chest heaves. He nods, lip wobbling in a way that just continues to push Gary to his limit.

"So, how do you feel if I adopt you?"

"Adopt?" Little Cato whispers.

Gary nods. "Do you know what that means?"

Little Cato hiccups, trying to wipe his tears away again. "You wanna be my dad?"

Gary smiles so warmly, staring at this kid in front of him. He truly would do anything for him, even if he wanted every single star in the sky. Gary would get them for him. He wonders if this is how his dad felt towards him. 

"Of course I wanna be your dad. So, what do you say?"

The boy stays silent for a while, so Gary slowly releases him from his hold. He doesn't know what the kid is going to decide, and he's kind of panicking the longer this takes because what if the kid says no or—!

A small, warm mass collides with his chest, and tiny arms wrap around his torso. He looks down to see Little Cato's face smushed against him, a very pleased smile on his face as his tears continue to flow. Gary quickly wraps his arms around the kid's—his kid's—body, cradling him against his chest. Gary, crouching down, and Little Cato, trying to get as close to Gary as possible, both hold each other with an intense ferocity.

Gary buries his face into the top of his boy's head, and he rubs soothing circles into his back to calm his sobs that sound terribly painful. The Ventrexian is so small that Gary's arms practically engulf him, and it just reinforces Gary's strong desire to protect this kid from everything the world has to offer. 

Little Cato continues to cry, yet Gary is in a very uncomfortable position, so he adjusts his hold on the kid and stands, placing him on his hip.

"I've got you, buddy, don't worry," he soothes, smiling when Little Cato nuzzles deeper into his neck. 

Gary walks to the meeting point slowly so as to not jostle the kid in his arms, who's drifting off to sleep after what has been quite an emotionally draining day. He doesn't know how he didn't fall asleep sooner, but at least he can get some well-deserved rest. 

When he reaches the spot, Nightfall, Mooncake, and KVN are all waiting. They all jump to attention over seeing Gary, and Gary watches as Nightfall's worried frown fades away into a relieved grin. 

"Finally found the little rascal," Gary whispers, laughing a little. 

"I'm glad," Nightfall says, gently placing a hand on the boy's shoulder. She smiles at Gary, a warm and loving thing. "You know, fatherhood suits you."

Gary gives the kid a little scratch behind the ear, smiling fondly when the kid hums in contentment. 

"I was thinking the same thing."


End file.
